Articles by

Lucie Levine

Lucie Levine is News Editor at Greenpointers, and the founder of Archive on Parade, a local tour and event company that takes New York’s fascinating history out of the archives and into the streets. She’s a Native New Yorker, licensed New York City tour guide, and freelance writer with a passion for the city’s social, political and cultural history.

01/04/18 1:16pm
Selfie Central, Via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Selfie Central, Via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Hey Dumbo, hope you’re keeping warm in this frigid weather! If you’re off from work or school today, we hope you’ll curl up with some Hometown Headlines, our bi-weekly local news roundup.

To begin with, if you’re inside today, you’re not the only one. Even “Selfie-Central,” that prime pic-snapping stretch of Washington Street near Water Street that so perfectly frames the Manhattan Bridge, is deserted due to today’s wild blizzard and freezing temperatures.

And it’s not just the snow that’s obstructing the view. The community group Save the View lost its appeal against Brooklyn Bridge Park and the developer Troll Brothers. The original lawsuit, concerns the construction of 1Hotel, which blocks the view of a part of the Brooklyn Bridge that is not legally protected.

But not all construction in the neighborhood meets opposition. Some is welcome, such as repairs on the stretch of the BQE under the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. But, a rift in priorities at the Department of Transportation has pitted the BQE against the planned BQX.

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01/03/18 5:19pm

Happy New Year, Dumbo! If you’re looking for some fun ways to get 2018 started, we’ve got the picks of the week right here.

Thursday 1/4

LIGHT YEAR 33: Textural Psychedelia @ Pearl Street Triangle (Water and Pearl Streets), 6pm, FREE,Video Art Exhibit projected onto the Manhattan Bridge, More info

Friday 1/5

“Abortion” Opening Reception @ A.I.R. Gallery (155 Plymouth Street), 6pm, FREE,This exhibition will feature over 70 artists who were given the opportunity to create work expressing their rage, acceptance, sorrow, ambivalence, and thoughts on abortion hoping to make an important contribution to our collective history. More info                                                        Kathleen Supové premieres “In the Deep Heart’s Core” @ Fulton Ferry Landing, 8pm, $20-$40. Buy Tix

Saturday 1/6

Book Launch: How to Stop Feeling Like Shit by Andrea Owen @ POWERHOUSE @ the Archway (28 Adams Street), 6pm, FREE, No-punches-pulled advice to women who want to stop undermining their own happiness once and for all, RSVP                                                           Rookie on Love @ Books are Magic (225 Smith Street), 5pm, FREE,Join us for a celebration of this new anthology with Tavi Gevinson and contributors including Hilton Als, Amy Rose Spiegel,
Diamond Sharp, Laia Garcia, Jazmine Hughes, Tova Benjamin, Danielle Henderson, Annie Mok, and Emma Straub! More info                                                                                                                                               The Beginning Choice @ A.I.R. Gallery (155 Plymouth Street), 1pm, FREE, a public performance by Parastoo Ahoon. More info

Sunday 1/7

1 Day Workout: Camera Warm-Up! @ BKC (33 Washington Street), 11am, $84-$120, In five hours we’ll help you forge a friendship with your digital camera, exploring its vital features and demystifying the buttons and dials that trip common users up. From controlling exposure to getting a handle on autofocus, we’ll unpack these tech-heavy tools in a simple and straightforward manner. Buy tix                                                                                                            The Harvard Krokodiloes Benefit Concert @ The River Café (1 Water Street), 12pm, $300, The Harvard Krokodiloes will have their first ever performance at the River Café for a concert and brunch on Sunday, January 7th. The concert will benefit the prestigious and historic Dodge Y, originally founded as the Brooklyn Central YMCA in 1853. Buy Tix                                                                                                  Youth Night @ Superfine (126 Front Street), 7pm, NO COVER, Sunday Night Jazz and Americana series celebrates the young musicians from our Dumbo community to bring in the new year with a triple bill. More info                                                                                                                                                                        With Women Workshop: Reproductive Self Determination and Autonomous Women’s Health-Care @ A.I.R Gallery (155 Plymouth Street), 2pm, FREE. More info

Monday 1/8

2×24 @ Museum Quality NYC (59 Pearl Street), By Appointment, Catch the last day of Chantal Meng and
Moritz Lehner’s exhibit 2×24: 48 Images, 2 Time Zones, 6:00am ≠ 1:00am, London, New York. More info

Tuesday 1/9

After Work Pizza Party @ Lady’s (572 Fulton Street), 5pm, FREE, RSVP

 

12/22/17 3:06pm
Reimagining Bridge Park 2. Via Brooklyn Paper

Reimagining Bridge Park 2. Via Brooklyn Paper

Welcome to the inaugural Hometown Headlines post, a new bi-weekly news roundup at Dumbo NYC!

This week, it seems that Dumbo will be having a green Christmas. On Monday, members of Community Board 2’s Parks Committee gave the ok on  plans to redesign Bridge Park 2. The park is currently almost entirely concrete. The plan is to un-pave paradise and turn the park into a verdant playground with artwork throughout.

Speaking of municipal improvements, Brooklyn Heights Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon, the self-styled “Queen of Gowanus,” says that the plan to bury the Gowanus Expressway — creating an underground tunnel from 3rd Avenue to the Harbor, and connecting from there to the BQE — is nearly complete.

The fact that the wheels are turning on that tunnel might be welcome news, since the Brooklyn-Queens Connector (BQX), the proposed streetcar that will run from Astoria to Sunset Park with stops in Vinegar Hill, Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights, is already behind schedule.

But enough about infrastructure. What about art? It turns out that the art gallery scene in episode 6 of Spike Lee’s new Netflix series, She’s Gotta Have It was filmed in Dumbo!

12/19/17 3:34pm

‘Twas the week before Christmas… and if you’re like us, you’re wondering what’s going on around town. Well we’ve got you covered in the Merry department. Here are all the fun goings on in the Nabe this week.

Happy Hanukah, Dumbo!

Tuesday 12/19

Fire and Ice Hanukkah Celebration @ Jane’s Carousel (Brooklyn Bridge Park, Enter at Dock or Main St.), 4:30-6pm, Free. Join Chabad of Dumbo & Dumbo Gan and Friends for a last night of Hanukkah celebration at Jane’s Carousel. Featuring free carousel rides, face painting, arts and crafts, holiday fare and an ice menorah. RSVP                                    New York Road Runners Open Runs @ Fornino (Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park) Check in 6:45, Run 7:00pm, Free. All runners welcome, from first time runners to seasoned marathoners. Full 5K course, no registration required. More info                                                                              Tequila Tasting @ Rouge et Blanc (81 Washington Street), 6pm, Free. ArteNOM Tequila will be flowing. more info

 

Wednesday 12/20

Babies Together Music Class @ Naomi’s Music (117 Remsen St.), 12:30pm, sample for Free. Come Wiggle, Dance, poke and play with your baby in a musical way! More info.

 

 

 

Reading at Berl’s

Thursday 12/21

Brooklyn Heights Comedy Nights @ Vineapple Cafe (71 Pineapple Street), 8:30pm, Free, no cover, no minimum. A monthly stand-up show featuring local comedians, big-time headliners, foreign nationals and everything in between. Co-hosted by Brooklyn-born comedian Shelly Colman (2014 Newcomer National Grand Champion Ladies of Laughter Competition, Cinder Block Comedy Festival). More info                                                          Liz Countryman, Samuel Amadon & Timothy Donnelly @ Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop (141 Front Street), 7-9pm. Swing by NYC’s only all-poetry bookstore for an evening of readings. More info                    Sip and Shop Thursday @ Trunk (68 Jay Street), 3pm-9pm, Free. Baby it’s cold outside, but it’s nice and warm inside Trunk! Gift Cartel is open late tonight, serving our in-house libations: wine, mulled cider and hot chocolate so you can unwind after work with some low-key gifting and local fun. More info

Friday 12/22

Eco Gift Wrapping @ Trunk (68 Jay Street), 11am, Free. Come get your gift wrapped with zero waste! Fabric and packaging scraps turn into a beautiful gift wrapping station that shows our planet some love! Come shop, and even bring your gifts that you bought elsewhere. We will be wrapping them all day the last Friday and Saturday before Christmas Eve. Expect gorgeous and creative presentation that’s sure to make your gift extra memorable. Have some material at home that you’d like to upcycle? Bring it by! More Info

Happy Holidays!!!

 

12/15/17 9:34am
Items from the film's original opening. Via the Brooklyn Museum

Items from the film’s original opening. Via the Brooklyn Museum on Twitter

DUMBO was in the spotlight on Thursday, December 7, when Ken Burns returned to the Brooklyn Museum for an event showcasing a beautifully remastered version of his first film, Brooklyn Bridge (1981).  The documentary, which premiered at the Brooklyn Museum after 5 years in the making, tells the inspiring and quixotic tale of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, a monument so practical in purpose, so large in scope, so stunning in beauty, and so enduring in significance, that it spans not only the East River but also the world as an icon of human ingenuity, civic responsibility, and artistic excellence.

Burns’s film explores the private genius of the bridge’s creators — John, Washington and Emily Warren Roebling — who engineered the largest suspension bridge in the world at the time, the public euphoria that gripped New York when the bridge opened to the public in 1883, and the bridge’s subsequent effect on the city. To do it, he pioneered a style of photography and storytelling now known, via an off-screen assist by Steve Jobs, as the Ken Burns Effect(more…)